A Postcard from Dan Macarthur

This is the mini jib! I'm shooting a Bollywood comedy zombie film in Bombay and Goa for 3 months with some big stars. Shooting on Alexa with master primes and about 150 crew :)

Have a great time at the awards and I look forward to catching up when I get back in January.

The Bollywood zombie film has commenced filming again in Goa and we had our first zombie victim yesterday, a hippy looking Russian who was devoured in the mid day heat of 40 deg and a humidity you could swim in.

Our crew consists of 90 people and this film is considered a medium budget film. Of course there is one person for every job, for instance when you hire a camera it comes with 3 crew. Shooting on Alexa with master primes and we were able to watch some rushes on the big screen in Bombay at Prime focus which is a very large production house and the pictures were fantastic. It's reasonable to zoom in up to 20% if need be, and still maintain enough detail with no noise increase. We are shooting 2.35 with 1.85 tv safe for the DVD release. The beach locations are very beautiful here but it takes 2 hrs to get to most locations and the driving style here is nothing less than amazing. The constant close head-ons as drivers overtake around blind corners and drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid complacent cows or speeding motorbikes, brings on a lot of cheers from the foreign crew. We have 2 stunt supervisors from South Africa, sound guys from Spain and i brought along a make up effects from Melbourne (JMB FX) and Milaan on Steadicam.

The two Directors, Raj and DK have made three films to date and they are new age, young and have a great understanding of coverage, editing and staging a scene, what a change. They take on board many ideas I throw at them and are happy to go in a certain direction I want to take it, so it's satisfying from that perspective. We still have a big block to shoot in February with the big star, Saf Ali Kaan, one of the A listers here, filming with guns and many zombies so that will be fun. If you want to see more pics check out www.facebook.com/bollyzom to watch the progress and read the funny stories